


give her a minute (or a few months), she'll come around

by aerxplane



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Character Development, Clint Barton & Natasha Romanov Friendship, Domestic Avengers, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Natasha Romanov-centric, POV Third Person Limited, Post-Iron Man 2, Pre-Avengers (2012), SHIELD, Some Humor, Stark Tower, actually this whole fic is trash, i used google translate for this one russian line so im sorry if it's trash, jk im not funny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-06
Updated: 2018-08-06
Packaged: 2019-06-22 18:33:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15588129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aerxplane/pseuds/aerxplane
Summary: She sees Clint again, and he makes everything okay for a while, with his worn boots and tired smile, who could kill a man from a hundred feet away with a bow made from just scraps on the ground, but that's okay, because it's not how she knows him, just like he doesn't see her as an elite Russian assassin, but as the girl he worked with in Budapest who loves heights and hates people, except him of course.  He makes everything okay because he knows how to work the fancy coffee machine in S.H.I.E.L.D without breaking it and he knows the best places to hide and he always finds his way to the roof even when Fury removes his clearance for it, and he always brings Nat with him.But then he leaves, and she falls. It's a cycle, in that way.





	give her a minute (or a few months), she'll come around

**Author's Note:**

> oof nat is my bamf child i love my kickass daughter

Natalie Rushman realises too late that this feeling coursing through her empty veins is called _loneliness,_ and by then she knows it's too late.

 

She takes down Happy Hogan in less than ten seconds and hates that she can.  She gets a knowing glint from the man himself, _Tony Stark_ and hates that it's what she's there for.  She hates seeing Pepper Potts glare at her and she hates reporting back to Nick Fury and she hates it, hates it, _hates it._

 

She sees Clint again, and he makes everything okay for a while, with his worn boots and tired smile, who could kill a man from a hundred feet away with a bow made from just scraps on the ground, but that's okay, because it's not how she knows him, just like he doesn't see her as an elite Russian assassin, but as the girl he worked with in Budapest who loves heights and hates people, except him of course.  He makes everything okay because he knows how to work the fancy coffee machine in S.H.I.E.L.D without breaking it and he knows the best places to hide and he always finds his way to the roof even when Fury removes his clearance for it, and he always brings Nat with him. But then he leaves, and she falls. It's a cycle, in that way.

 

She's called back again, out into the field, and this time her hair is curly as Nick Fury puts an arm around her and Tony Stark looks at her disapprovingly, and she glares back at him with equal skepticism, a little more rude and a touch of _not wanting to be there_ and it seems to do the trick, Tony lowers his gaze and Natasha hates that she feels a little triumphant.

 

Clint comes back and leaves again, this time faster than before, and she hates sounding like a child when she asks "so soon?" and when he says nothing, the sad look in his eyes says everything and she hates that she made him feel that way.

 

Fury approaches her and tells her that he's putting together a team and that he wants her involved, which to her horror, includes Tony Stark, as well Captain America the WWII hero, the Hulk, essentially a big green guy with anger issues, Thor (who she refuses to call a god, just outright _refuses_ ) and to her delight: Clint, who she’s more than okay with.  But she's not so crazy about the others: she's never been a fan of Tony Stark, he was handed his company on a silver platter and he's never known what it's like to be _her_ , and Cap is too rigid for her taste and Banner, well, he won't stop ogling her even if he tries to be subtle.  Thor is just odd but she secretly likes his brother, even if he _is_ trying to take over the world.  At least he knows what he wants.

 

After the fourth complaint of broken machinery (a combined effort of Thor and Banner), Fury complains about how S.H.I.E.L.D is a secret organisation and not a hotel lodge, and forces Tony to turn Stark Tower into a suitable living habitat for all six of them and none of them (except Clint) is really happy about it.  Natasha hates it especially.

 

One day she walks into the kitchen and finds that all Stark has in his fridge is over a hundred donuts and half a carton of spoiled milk, and then when turning around the leave, accidentally pulling a knife on Banner who surprised her, who in response turns wildly green and destroys over half the donuts and all the milk and Natasha hates it here, even more so after Banner finally turns normal-colored again and tries to apologise.

 

So she heads to the roof— it takes her nearly half an hour, since Stark Tower has multiple elevators and even more clearance codes (she smashes one or two control panels in frustration, she still hasn't told Tony)— but it's worth it, because she's always loved heights, where the people below look like ants and they're moving so fast, pushing each other out of the way, scurrying to _wherever_ they need to go and down there, Natasha is one of them but when she's up _here_ , she feels invincible watching them, like time has slowed and she's no longer anyone, because no one can touch her up here.

 

And she loves the buildings, and how they're all shorter than Stark Tower (that's the one good thing about this place, and she secretly loves how her ears pop once she takes the third elevator up) and she can watch all the lights flicker on and off, and sometimes she can see little silhouettes through the windows of people doing small domestic things, like using the copier and then smashing the side when it doesn't work (it reminds her of Banner) and people talking, watching their heads roll back as they laugh and she feels almost like a god up there and she loves it.

 

She wishes she could always sit on the roof, hell— she wishes she never had to leave, it's so quiet and perfect and all the hustle and panic is far down below of which she can laugh at, and never worry about having to be in the midst of it, and—

 

"Romanoff!"  She can hear heavy footsteps striding towards her and she knows immediately who they belong to as she represses a grumble.  "You broke my tech! Do you know how much that cost?"

 

"Stark."  She replies dully.  "You can replace it with a snap of your fingers."

 

Tony scoffs and taps his foot.  "That's not the point. I invited you here and you can't go around disrespecting my stuff like that."

 

"Fury invited me here," Natasha corrects, "and I'll stop _disrespecting your stuff_ when everyone else stops _disrespecting me_."

 

Tony sits down beside her.  "Hey, he means no harm. Bruce just really loves your body, infact, I don’t really blame him—"

 

"Vulgar, Stark, real vulgar."  Natasha remarks, not even bothering to look at him, and she wants him to leave, her fingers itching to shove him away.  She's pretty sure he gets the hint, but he doesn't go.

 

"So," Tony clears his throat.  "I'm up here because Fury wants us to be a team.  You ever heard of the Avengers Initiative? You know, just a little thing S.H.I.E.L.D came up with, nothing much, just a world-rescuing superhero group, not that you would know, he probably consulted you _directly_ -"

 

"I get it."  Natasha cuts him off.  "He wants us to bond. Well say something that you think is funny, I'll pretend to laugh, Fury will catch it on his spy cameras that he probably has floating around, and you can go."

 

"Well!"  Tony grins.  "She _can_ joke!  No unauthorised androids could even be able to get _near_ my tower.  But actually I was gonna invite you down.  Fury doesn't give a shit about _bonding_ , he just doesn't want us blowing up the tower until we have an actual fight."

 

Natasha raises an eyebrow at him.  "Fury doesn't give a shit about the _tower_ ," she says, mimicking Stark.  "He just doesn't want us hurting his initiative."

 

"Fine, fine.   _I_ don't want you hurting my tower.  But we're about to marathon Star Wars, I just found out Steve hasn't seen it and I think we all want to see his reaction to Empire."

 

She _does_ want to see that, but knows not to make it obvious.  "If Clint's there, I'll go," she says, focusing on the building opposite, nearly as tall as Stark's, where through the window she can watch the silhouettes of two people laughing.

 

"I don't understand your obsession with Barton," Tony purses his lips, but his "I'm just as interesting" line goes unnoticed by Natasha as she realises the two people opposite aren't laughing, they're yelling, so loud that she can hear it on the roof, and then the taller person raises his hand to slap the other across the face and Natasha accidentally lets out a shout, to which Tony Stark stops talking and turns to look.

 

She can hear the sharp slap across the person's face in her head and her own face burns as she stands up, but before she can do anything, Tony scrambles up too, mutters a quiet "I'm on it" and promptly jumps off the roof.

 

Natasha can only manage a millisecond of surprise before Iron Man flies back up and rockets towards the other building, and she swallows her dignity and watches as he forces the balcony window open (for Stark tech, honestly not that hard).  A few moments later, he flies back out, dragging a tall man by his jacket collar, and dropping him on the roof of Stark Tower at Natasha's feet. "He's yours." Tony growls, and steps back, still in armor.

 

This is when Natasha doesn't feel so bad anymore, living in Stark Tower, and all of a sudden, she doesn't hate Tony as much, because now she knows that he's the kind of person that would break open a window to save a woman (who she can see out of the corner of her eye run out onto the balcony and watch, open-mouthed as her husband— Natasha assumes, is being pummelled to unconsciousness on the neighbouring roof by a petite redhead with a six-foot robot standing next to her) from domestic abuse, and she swears that she can _hear_ Tony smile under the mask, and when he returns to the roof after dropping the man back on the balcony with his wife, he steps out of his armor and Natasha agrees to that movie marathon, in which Clint doesn’t question her bloody knuckles, Banner only looks more in love with her, Rogers yells "holy shit!" to the "I am your father" scene (Tony responds with "language!), and Thor just complains about how _space isn’t really like that_ , and Natasha keeps throwing glances at all of them, liking them a little more, but still hating them, of course.

 

Later Banner approaches Natasha and after apologising for sexualising her (she's pretty sure Tony tipped him off), he gives an offhand remark about how to get onto the roof without destroying the control panels, a method involving long fingernails and J.A.R.V.I.S persuasion, she begins to call him Bruce in her head.

 

Thor amuses her, and when he offers to get rid of the donuts that are _still_ annoying Natasha, she is impressed by his method of _eating them all_ and after six hours of her painting her nails three different shades as Thor alternates between recommending new colors and trying to keep the donuts down, she thinks that maybe he _is_ a god after he emerges victorious, all donuts safely digested.

 

She forces herself to get into a conversation with Rogers (because hey, she's good with Clint, impressed by Tony, forgiven Bruce, Thor’s cool, may as well seal the deal with Rogers, right?) and instead of the old-timey WWII captain she expects, he's soft all around despite his hard edges, and even makes her laugh, something that not even Stark could do, and she genuinely likes him when her hair falls out from behind her ear and she can see his fingers twitch in an effort not to put it back into place and when she smiles at him, it's real.

 

And then the next time Clint suggests to make Steve watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Thor and Bruce readily agree, and when Natasha says yes as well, Tony gives her a knowing look and settles down beside her, mouthing “bonding," to which she ignores, but can't stop the small smile from spreading over her face.  Halfway through the first movie, Steve slaps his knee and yells "oh! That's why Stark calls you _Legolas!_ " in a proud voice and she can’t stop the small spill of laughter trickling from her lips as Clint groans, burying his face in a pillow and when Thor points at Gimli and mentions that _he has a few of those in Asgard_ , she decides _what the hell_ and asks after them, and ends up getting a whole lot of history about dwarves in space and a place called _Nidavellir._

 

Movies become a thing after that, and when Natasha suggests to watch Harry Potter one day (hey, she's a Ginny fan, she looks a little like her too), Tony laughs and slaps her on the shoulder, removing his hand quickly when she turns and looks at him, but this time it's not with skepticism (well it is, but all her looks are skeptic), but a little disgruntled fondness as well.

 

They end up watching all eight movies in one sitting, Clint falls asleep twice and Natasha prods him awake both times, and Tony orders pizza per two movies and coffee twice as much as that, and when they finish, Thor has to have the series explained to him six times by Bruce, who nearly goes green with the frustration (Natasha grabs his hand to stop him from Hulking out and he turns red instead) and Steve has fallen in love with Hermione, quoting her at every turn (Natasha actually gets sick of the phrase "emotional range of a teaspoon" which is something she thought would never happen) and she hates him because of it, but also kind of loves him too.

 

She realises that "hates but kind of loves" has become her way of describing everyone and everything in Stark Tower, from the donuts that keep miraculously appearing back in the fridge (If Thor wasn't a god— yes, Natasha has accepted it— he would be wildly obese to the point of a heart attack) to the annoyance on Tony's face every time he finds his control panels dead, and Bruce puts an innocent look on his face while Natasha wipes her nails clean, and Steve can't really go wrong, to be honest, but Natasha loves it especially when she gets him to watch the Chronicles of Narnia and _who knew Steve loved lions so much?_

 

And she still loves the roof, and now Tony knows what she does up there, so it eventually becomes _her spot_ just like the couch in front of the TV is Steve's and the kitchen is Thor's and the labs are Bruce's, and Clint somehow got ahold of _five whole bedrooms_ and Tony complains of having everyone steal his home away from him, but she knows he doesn't mind, partly because the roof _has great sound quality coming from the air vents_ and she can hear him talk to Fury on the phone and they're sarcastic and involve a lot of deadpanning, but from what she's heard, Tony doesn't feel lonely anymore, and then she realises with a jolt that sends her rocketing down to look at Steve and Thor marathoning the Fast and Furious franchise, that she doesn't feel lonely either.

 

Because Stark Tower finally becomes her home, which is something she hasn't really had before, and she teaches Thor to speak Russian and they end up speaking it around the tower, much to everyone else's annoyance (he installs a translator in J.A.R.V.I.S to combat it, but he translates "поэтому у меня не было выбора, кроме как поставить его на колени и"*, before promptly turning it off again).  She learns how much Pepper means to Tony after a worse night where he drinks a little too much and when she requests that Pepper ask Tony to get lunch with her the next day, Natasha is hiding around the corner and smiles as his face lights up. She actually agrees to go on a date with Bruce and afterwards they both agree that they're better off as friends and she can finally go a day without catching his gaze on her chest, and Steve is fairly open for a guy that lived half a century ago (one day she snaps though, and tells him that she won't break when they spar and that he doesn't have to hold open _every single door_ ) and the next day he breaks her ribs when they train and she is impressed even if he apologises a dozen times.  And of course she has always felt at home with Clint, who is the only other person she invites onto the roof with her and he casually shoots an arrow through Tony's coffee over five floors down and when they hear his extremely _manly_ shriek as the hot coffee spills, she holds her broken ribs and laughs until they ache.

 

They try to make chili as a group and Natasha is the only one who can handle the spice that Bruce accidentally spills into it, they learn how to remove barbed arrow tips from walls and Clint brings the fancy coffee machine in from S.H.I.E.L.D just to mess with her.  She finds out that Steve has quiet paralysing nightmares about Bucky and he keeps calling out for Peggy in his sleep and she figures out how to break him from them. She becomes the only one besides Pepper who can coax Tony out of a panic attack, and Thor speaks Russian more than English now.  They can say quiet things to each other without speaking at all, and they become an eventual unusual family in Stark Tower, in the unassuming living room, the sofa worn by their movie marathons and the kitchen which has that permanent stain on the ceiling thanks to Thor, and the tower is full of music and spice and old Captain America comics that Steve hates (so Tony brings in even more) and Bruce recreates Mjolnir and manages to fool Thor for promptly 4 seconds, which is pretty cool.

 

And one night, when they're binge-watching the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, in which Tony compares himself to Jack Sparrow and Thor says that Elizabeth reminds him of Jane, Natasha kicks Clint instinctively, knowing that he'll be asleep and looks over at Steve just as he lets out a shout when the theme song starts playing.  Bruce wrinkles his nose after the first movie and says it's unrealistic, to which Tony responds that _he tried to ask out_ Natasha, _don't talk about unrealistic._ Thor wakes Clint (again) with his booming laughter and Steve shuts him up to start the next movie, and she realises that this feeling coursing through her empty veins is called _familiarity,_ and maybe _this_ is the cure to her loneliness, and Natasha Romanoff realises that maybe it's not too late after all.

**Author's Note:**

> *”поэтому у меня не было выбора, кроме как поставить его на колени и” translates to “so I had no choice but to put him on his knees and”
> 
> uh that was meant to sound half kinky and half violent im sorry i cant write humor im not funny


End file.
